Reilly lauds Vermont National Guard member

Rick Reilly, the famous, award-winning columnist for Sports Illustrated who now writes for ESPN.com, writes about a New Yorker who is part of the Vermont National Guard in this week's online column. Do check it out, it's a great story!

-Anna Grearson 

Frost Heaves add 7'1" center, release Price

The Frost Heaves have signed another 7-footer in 7-foot-1 Jeral Davis, who joins 7-2 Jared Carter. Jarel, Jared, should be fun keeping those two straight if you're an announcer. Good thing we work with last names after the first reference.

While the PBL is dominated by lightning-fast guards, it's also very important to have a big presence in the paint, and so far Carter has done OK. Vermont is coming into a tough weekend with games against top-ranked Puerto Rico and rival Manchester, so fans will get to see just what this guy can do almost right away.

Vermont had to release Kendrick Price to make room for Davis, and I know these decisions aren't getting any easier for the coaching staff. Price looked great at the tryout at Essex High School last fall and has been with the team from the beginning of camp in December. I didn't get to see too much of him on the court, as the vast majority of the Frost Heaves' games have been on the road. 

The PBL allows for just 10 roster moves a season, and so far Vermont has made about seven (don't quote me on the official number, there's seven entries for Vermont on the Player Transaction page off the PBL Web site). I hear there might be more coming, so I'm sure the fan site will be a flurry of activity this week.

And speaking of this week, Vermont welcomes Puerto Rico on Friday night at the Aud, and the Capitanes just lost their first game. Literally, just. It happened like a half-hour ago. The loss meant the Rochester RazoSharks earned their 100th franchise victory, but more importantly to Vermont fans, if Rochester had lost that game, Vermont would've moved into fourth place. Why does fourth place matter? Only four teams make the PBL playoffs.

See what I mean about this being a big weekend for Vermont?

--Anna Grearson

It's playoff time!

Some of the pairings for this year's winter tournament are announced Monday morning, and I will admit freely that part of me feels like it's Christmas Eve. Keep checking back to see how our teams are doing - we update the pairings every day in the paper, and I'm sure I'll find a lot of blog-worthy moments!

That said, I had a busy week last week, and came away with a few thoughts:

1. Is there a more calming presence on a high school sports team than Williamstown's Kristin Brown? Seriously, this kid is such a leader, such a positive force out there, I would love to have her as a teammate. Watch her and the Blue Devils in the D-IV tournament.

2. JV teams are wrapping up their seasons, too, and Mark Mooney passed along his congratulations to the U-32 girls JV basketball team. He told me they had a successful season and he was optimistic about his program's future. As a varsity coach, Mooney has been keeping an eye on his JV team and is excited. Always good to hear!

-Anna Grearson

The shifts seem to be working

With the regular season almost over - weird, I know - I've been thinking about how effective the divisional shifts have been for the few local teams that made a move in the off-season.

The Williamstown boys and girls are both in Division IV now, and both seem to be doing very well. The boys should definitely make it to the Barre Auditorium - something that hasn't happened for that program in 24 years. What makes it special is that the last time the Blue Devils were at the Aud, their current coach was a player. Jack Carrier is in his first year as head coach, but he's been coaching a lot of his current players since they were involved in the youth program. Very cool if it comes to pass.

The Montpelier girls basketball team moved down to Division III while the boys remain in Division II - also apparently a good move. The girls are right up there in D-III and also have their sights set on the Aud.

The Harwood boys hockey team is now in the Metro (Division I), and that also seems to be working out OK. The Highlanders are in the middle of the pack and have beaten all the Lake Division (D-II) teams they've faced this season so far.

So for all of the early and pre-season doubters, apparently the shifts have been a pretty good idea. Bring on the playoffs!

-Anna Grearson

Can Vermont make it two in a row?

The Vermont Frost Heaves play at Rochester (N.Y.) Saturday night after defeating rival Manchester 124-121 in double overtime at home in Barre this past Tuesday night.

That means new head coach Joe Salerno has gone 1-1 so far, with the -1 a 154-111 defeat at Oklahoma, which just dropped 150+ on its latest opponent, the Maryland GreenHawks. They actually won 161-95. Ouch. What is with that offense? Are the GreenHawks that hard to defend? I didn't watch the either game online (were they available? I didn't even check), so I can't say much more, other than, what? How does that happen on a regular basis? And who will be able to stop it?

Moving on, back to Saturday's game. The last time Vermont was at Rochester, the Frost Heaves snapped a 50-game home win streak of the Razorsharks' that spanned something like three years. Rochester is currently 5-1 and in third place in the PBL while Vermont is 1-4 and in eighth place, ahead of just Quebec at 1-6. The Sharks started out 5-0 before dropping a game to Halifax last week. That's all well and good and all, but Rochester also hasn't played anybody in the top five in the league - with the exception of Halifax, which sits in second, and which beat the Sharks by three, 102-99. Vermont, on the other hand, has had a far tougher schedule having played first-place and undefeated Puerto Rico, the aforementioned offensive machines in Oklahoma, Halifax, and twice against Manchester while Rochester has played Buffalo twice, Manchester, Maryland and Quebec. 

Either way it'll be an interesting game. I will be interested in seeing what kind of confidence Vermont gained in the Manchester win, but also what the team will do without its fan base that both Salerno and guard Troy Jackson said really helped the team pull out the win. Sure the Fan Van folks will probably be there, and that's fantastic of course, but it helps when there's 595 other people behind you, too. 

Fans will see familiar faces on the Rochester roster including David Bailey, Jerice Crouch, Glen Dandridge, Keith Friel, Randy Gill and Xavier Morton, though X is currently on the injured reserve. Dandrige, Friel and Gill are all dominating shooters, and Vermont was lucky to have caught Manchester without Anthony Anderson, Al Stewart and Marlow Currie, who all were either traded (Currie) or released by the team in the last week or so. Still, Vermont had a time with the current Manchester sharp-shooters in Tyrece Gibbs, Julian Allen, and others, so who knows. Friel is leading the league in 3-pointers made with over 4 a game, while Crouch is nearly 60 percent from beyond the arc.

I have not been able to talk with the coaching staff and players since the Manchester game, so I don't know how they're feeling or even who is on the travel roster for this game. I guess I'll have to wait and see just like everyone else!

The game can be seen online Saturday night starting at 7:30. The link, I believe, can be accessed through the Rochester site off the PBL Web site, www.thepbl.com. Look for the results in Saturday's Times Argus!

-Anna Grearson

Thunder Road/ACT honors Pete Hartt's memory with new award

We're almost to the one-year mark since Pete Hartt's unexpected death (on March 2, 2009, to be exact), and to honor Pete and his commitment to the sport of auto racing, the folks over at Thunder Road/ACT established a new award this year in Pete's memory. 

The award is officially called the Pete Hartt Memorial Media Award, and it is to be given to "a media person who has made an effort to promote the sport of stock car racing, and in the course of it understands the importance of the people who make it happen," accoring to Darla Hartt, the vice president and general manager of Thunder Road/ACT, who was so helpful in getting me information on this award.

 Because she did such a great job in describing how the award came about, I'll copy-paste directly from sections of her email:

"As you know, Pete spent most of his life in Stowe.  In 1984 Pete was working at WDEV Radio as a sports reporter - broadcasting games on the radio, etc., etc.  ... As with so many things Pete did, the broadcasting came very naturally to him, and Ken became very fond of Pete.  ... Pete ... gradually, grudgingly started going to some races,  and despite being a confirmed stick and ball guy, appreciated the competition and the passion of the drivers and teams, and really developed a taste for racing.

With our touring events at that time being so successful, Ken and Tom Curley got together and determined that an expansion of the radio network which was in place would be a good idea, and so Pete and Greg Titus became the broadcasting partners for that effort, travelling to many of the tracks we appeared at.

... Pete and Tom developed a very good friendship, and all the while, Pete "got it"....at a time when racing was still struggling with past perceptions, Pete was a good steward of the sport.  He gave it a face with profiles about drivers like Eric Williams, he educated readers and listeners about the sport, and really helped to bring it to a very legitimate, acceptable level.

Through the course of the last several years, Pete was a nearly constant presence at T-Road on Thursday nights, and would stand in my spotter's stand chatting about things on the track and off the track, all the while taking 
in all the important info he needed for stories or direction, and as you can appreciate, never missing a beat in the conversation about my family, or his family, or whatever.

Ken has often said that racing is everyman's sport -- I think that might have been part of the appeal for Pete.

Pete's sudden death left a big hole for so many of us, and when Thursday nights rolled around this summer, there was a definite sense of missing him at the track.  It was on one of those nights that Tom and Ken were reminiscing about him, and together came up with the idea that an award in his honor would be appropriate.  The criteria for the award was established to reflect Pete's take on things -- to be given to a media person who has made an effort to promote the sport of stock car racing, and in the course of it understands the importance of the people who make it happen.  Seth Leavitt was thrown into the racing thing in a similar fashion to Pete -- when Mike McGill left Seth inherited the task, and put in a big effort to familiarize himself with it.  The efforts made by Seth and the WCAX crew to include results and pre-race information on their telecasts has been very beneficial to Thunder Road, and has really highlighted the people who race with us...and as you know, people were always the most important element in anything that Pete was involved in.

I spoke with Tom and asked him for some comments for you.  He said:  "The best part of getting to know Pete Hartt over the years was his journalistic ability to find the relevant story...I also admired his ability to continually bring integrity to his profession, and still maintain close relationships.  I thought often during our 50th anniversary season about the void left by not having Pete as a part of it.  Pete would have approved of Seth Leavitt winning the inaugural Pete Hartt Award as in many ways his efforts in the stock car community were a reflection of much of what Pete also brought to the business."

Many thanks to Darla and Tom for sharing this information with me, so I could in turn share it with you. And congratulations to Seth on a very well-deserved award. Pete taught me what I know about Thunder Road and car racing in general and got to me to actually enjoy it all - and for those who know the story, it was quite the mission he embarked upon in order to get me to even think about doing something other than watch baseball during the summer. That was Pete, though. One of the most patient people I've ever known. 

-Anna Grearson